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UK funding (£399,719): Legislating and implementing welfare policy reforms: What works politically in Africa and why? Ukri1 Nov 2012 UK Research and Innovation, United Kingdom
Overview
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Legislating and implementing welfare policy reforms: What works politically in Africa and why?
| Abstract | This project falls primarily under the previous Call (in 2010) on "Inequality and Development". Social assistance programmes - including 'social' pensions, conditional and unconditional cash transfers, and workfare through public employment programmes - have attracted considerable attention as a mechanism for reducing poverty and inequality, and stimulating development in the global South. Little attention has been paid, however, to the politics of programmes that "just give money to the poor". This research project will analyse how and why social assistance programmes are adopted in different parts of Africa, drawing comparisons with Brazil and India. The central question is "what works and what doesn't work politically?", i.e. what makes reforms politically feasible and sustainable? The research will examine, for selected countries across Southern, East and West Africa, each stage of the policy-making and implementation process. How do ideas get onto the policy agenda? What shapes elite and public opinion on reforms? Under what circumstances do reforms become salient electorally, or in competition between or within political parties? What influence do civil society organisations, aid donors or international agencies exert over policy-making? How are reforms affected by legislative, executive or bureaucratic procedures within the state? In short, what factors favour and what factors impede policy reforms? The goal is to understand why policies are not adopted as much as why they are and the final form that they take. The research will pay particular attention to the ways in which socio-economic inequalities and ethnic or racial differences affect the politics of welfare reforms. Economic inequalities ironically make it fiscally easier to reduce poverty gaps through cash transfers. Politically salient ethnic or racial differences are generally understood to impede programmatic policy-making. The combination of the two (as in South Africa) might make it politically easier to introduce reforms, if visible and effective poverty reduction is expected to reduce social and political tensions. Through a comparison of different countries, this research will inform an understanding of the political mechanisms through which socio-economic inequalities and regional or ethnic differences affect the political feasibility of welfare reforms. This research will be conducted through a combination of existing research conducted through UCT, supplemented with focused new research in selected countries. Existing research foundations include a review of policy across the region, case-study research on reforms in South Africa, surveys of public opinion (through Afrobarometer and other research), legislative processes (through the African Legislatures Project), cross-national studies of public expenditure on health care programmes, and the relationships between civil society and public policy-making. New empirical research will focus precisely on elite and public opinion on welfare policy reforms, political processes with respect to welfare policy-making in state and civil society, and the determinants of expenditure on welfare programmes in the selected countries. The project will contribute new understanding of how poverty alleviation can be delivered in a range of settings, including how the design of policies affects their political feasibility and the efficacy of interventions at different stages of the policy-making process. Whilst building on the strengths of a major research institution in the global South, the project will also help to build capacity there. |
| Category | Research Grant |
| Reference | ES/J018058/1 |
| Status | Closed |
| Funded period start | 01/11/2012 |
| Funded period end | 31/10/2015 |
| Funded value | £399,719.00 |
| Source | https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FJ018058%2F1 |
Participating Organisations
| University of Cape Town |
The filing refers to a past date, and does not necessarily reflect the current state. The current state is available on the following page: University of Cape Town Retirement Fund Retirement Fund, Cape Town, South Africa.
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